The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-10-06
Queens of the Ra ncll.


Dakota ranch is an objebt OF interest
quite as engross.ne as the luckless
mugwump, and regarded with rather
more friendly feelings, says that the
ranch woman-the cattle queen, as
the west is falling into the way ofstyl-
ing her-is no newspaper myth. She
exists, her numbers are increasing,
and she is one oil the most character
istic types that the conditions OF
American life have evolved. She is
the modern independent woman, but
with difference. She does not stand
on her own feet like the New York
woman, because she feels her influence
in society, nor like the New England
woman because she has been taught
to think for herself, but because, like
all frontiersmen, she has been forced
to act for herself, and with
true western grit she does it well.
She knows how to take care OF her.
self. She knows how to take
care OF her cattle. She knows how
to make her children homestead
and heritage. Occasionally she
knows what few self supporting wom-
EN- have yet learned, how to make
money, not only to live on, but to
grow rich on, as men, and rich men
count wealth nowadays.
"There are women all over the
west" Mr.. Roosevelt said the other
day. "who have come to be as
thoroughly capable OF managing their
| No;ro 20, than,oalt,au IL thay ,vora
the shrewdest olmen. Fortitude and
patience we always look for in
woman, but cool brave and business
talent are the qualities that some
times come out strongest when she
finds herself facing o rude civilization
and left to shift for herself as best she
can. Life on the ranch is certainly
rough for n woman. There is no call
to pity pioneer OF the other sex, foi
il he has the right stuff in him it
won't hurt him to buckle right down
to the bone, and then he can't but
succeed. But for q woman, to an
. easterner at least, it seems different.
And yet, SO lar as one can see, they
like it, n good many OF them,
and it brings ont the best
that is in them. They are not
all angels by any means, and a WON.
an desperate is sometimes quite as
much to be feared as the worst OF the
men. There was one down in Arizona
whom the ranchmen tell tales OF yet,
and with something like pride in her
exploits, too, who killed, so they say,
twenty-five men with her own hands.
She was a hard rider and crack
shot, so that it was decidedly risky
to be covered by her rifle. But that
same pluck and courage that she
showed turned into mole peaceful
channels, make splendid success oil
some OF the ranchwomen. The WON.
EN- who are managing cattle ranges
for themselves, not helping their hus.
bands gain footing which is some.
times about as hard, come from all
social ranks and have drifted into
the business don't know what pro-
portion OF them have deliberately
chosen tin all sorts of ways. Some
OF them are Texans who were almost
Graded with cattle, and to whom
running q mower, feeding stock,
breaking wild horses, or doing any
sort OF work about the ranch in so
much matter of education and
habit that it seems as much their
natural occupation as taking in sew
ing to u notable housewife left widow
in an eastern village. They take
hold cleverly with their husbands. il
they marry; they strike out for
themselves on small scale, which
sometimes grows to a larger one, II
they don't. Other ranchwomen, es.
pecially in Dakota. come from New
England, New York or the states
north OF Ohio. There are school teach
ers among them, who have concluded
to train something that may possibly
shoot more profitably than the I'M
fruitful young idea Most OF them
went west, in the first place, with their
husbands, to see what could be done
in a new country. and when the man
OF the family died or broke down, the
wife, rather than sacrifice the foothold
already gained, staid on, learned by
experience, bought her knowledge pref
ty dearly sometimes, failed utterly,
perhaps, if the winters were bad or a
fire swept her buildings; succeeded,
more probably, kept her stock in
good shape, added to their numbers
and came out ahead a little every
year. 1t is no joke to succeed in Da-
kota in cattle raising or tree planting
or wheat farming, but women can and
do make money in all three. Success
is graded, of course, as elsewhere.
The women ranchers whom | know
personally-and that is no very large
number-are not in the business on
large scale. Some OF them are
not ranching as eastern people, with
their ideas OF the bgness of western